A recreational hub in the heart of Ottawa’s Westboro neighbourhood is at risk of closing. The Ottawa Gymnastics Centre (OGC) has been told it must vacate its current home on Elmgrove Avenue by June 30, 2027 due to the building reach its end of life. The Centre’s lease with the City of Ottawa is up at the end of next June. When the lease was renewed back in 2022, it was determined then that the building would close five years later. But leadership at the gym are worried about finding a new home to serve the community. “This is a very big area with no beams in the middle, it’s a very unique type of space for a gymnastics club, and that’s hard to find,” says Amanda Pepin, executive director of OGC. The gymnastics club is home to roughly 2,500 members and offers both recreational and competitive programming, as well as after school and summer camp options. “Eighty per cent of our membership is from within this area of the city. So, we don’t want to lose them,” says Kate Heggtveit, vice-president on the OGC board of directors. Heggtveit tells CTV News that the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre is one of the few places within the core of the city that offers gymnastics programming to families, and losing that aspect would be a big blow to the community. “There’s a wading pool out [front] in the summer. There’s a park nearby. So having recreation in this area that is becoming very densely populated, I think, is a benefit to the community.” To this point, OGC says the city has not explicitly outlined what “end of life” means for its building and has asked for a new audit of the structure to take place. In a statement, the City of Ottawa’s general manager of Recreation, Cultural and Facility Services Dan Chenier says, “The City of Ottawa is in discussion with the Ottawa Gymnastics Centre regarding its request to extend the lease. We are working with the organization to explore potential solutions and will meet with them in the coming weeks once an updated building condition audit has been conducted.” Heggtveit questions what the status of the building is, given that the club has invested heavily in renovations in recent years. “Why would the city allow us to renovate and put about $400,000 into renovating the building and upgrading the building when it’s been determined to be end of life?” In the meantime, OGC has begun looking for a new home and has started a petition to raise awareness of their search, something they are not optimistic about. “We would love to remain in the core,” says Pepin. “We know that this type of space available here in the Ottawa area is very rare and very unique.”
